1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for processing data in a terminal having a touch screen and an apparatus for implementing the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for processing input data in a terminal having a device capable of displaying the input data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a terminal, such as a portable terminal, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), an electronic notebook, a Portable Multimedia Player (PMP), have become widely used. Devices such as a keypad, a keyboard, or a touch pad or a touch screen are included as part of the terminal and equipped to input certain data to the terminal. Among the devices, the touch screen has the ability to input an image or to input a shape. Since an input unit and a display unit can be implemented as one apparatus, the touch screen has been mounted to a plurality of terminals. The data input through the touch screen are usually saved with an image file type. Alternatively, the input data is converted into character information through an on-line character recognition technique and saved, or used for a specific function such as a message input. A method for saving data input through the touch screen can be divided into two method types.
The first method type is a method for converting data such as a stroke, a line, and a spot input by user into pixel unit information and saving the pixel unit information. The first method can maintain an original form of the input data as the data is saved nearly without any loss. However, the first method is disadvantageous in that it requires a large amount of saving space because unnecessary information such as a background screen to which data is input is also saved. Moreover, since noise information due to an unnecessary stroke made or a hand shake is also saved, it may be obscure or difficult to clearly display data.
The second method type is a method for saving data by using an on-line character recognition technique. This method converts data input by the user to stroke information, classifies the stroke information into the most similar character element or a character candidate group through a technique such as a feature point analysis, Dynamic Matching, relation analysis of relative location between character elements, input location discrimination, a neural network technique, a fuzzy inference, a genetic algorithm, or a Markov inference model method. The method converts data input through the classified character candidate group or the most similar character element into a character or sign information having an increased probability to be saved with a character string type that a terminal can recognize.
However, the on-line character recognition technique has a problem in that the data such as a sign, a figure, and an image can be saved with its original form as the input data can be converted only into a character and a sign which can be recognized. More particularly, in a case of a drawing or a figure drawn, it cannot be restored into the original form itself, but is converted into a character which is determined to be most similar to the drawing or the figure drawn. As a result, a problem exists in that the character which is determined to be most similar to the drawing or the figure drawn is different from actual data.
Therefore, a need exists for an apparatus and a method for processing data in a terminal having a touch screen.